It’s possible that no family in American history has received more sheer, sustained attention than the Kennedys ­— from their triumphs to their tragedies to their not-so-infrequent scandals.

But there’s probably no odder offshoot of this national fascination than “Grey Gardens,” the saga of two reclusive members of the extended Kennedy clan who once lived in a ramshackle mansion by that name on Long Island.

The story of mother and daughter Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (dubbed “Big Edie”) and Edith Bouvier Beale (“Little Edie”) ­— relations of onetime first lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy ­— was first told in a 1975 documentary by Albert and David Maysles.

In 2006, “Grey Gardens” became a Broadway musical; now that work is about to make its Southern California premiere at Ion Theatre in Hillcrest.

“It’s one of the forgotten corners of Camelot, I like to say,” notes director Kim Strassburger of the quirky story, adapted for the stage by composer Scott Frankel, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Doug Wright (of La Jolla Playhouse’s “I Am My Own Wife” and “Hands on a Hardbody”) and lyricist Michael Korie (of the Playhouse’s “Zhivago”).

The tale of two former socialites living in abject squalor, in a once-grand home now overflowing with garbage and roaming animals, does not exactly capture the more glamorous aspects of the Kennedy legend.

Lighter shade of 'Grey'

The dilapidated 1895 mansion that forms the setting for “Grey Gardens” was purchased in 1979 by former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and his wife, Sally Quinn. It has since been restored.

But “they’re so human,” says Strassburger of the pair and their appeal. “On first glance, they strike people as crazy cat ladies. But I think of them as survivors.”

Strassburger previously directed a scaled-down version of “Gypsy” in Ion’s intimate BLKBOX space. She’s bringing a similar approach to “Grey Gardens”: Instead of an orchestra, the production has musical accompaniment from cast member Ruff Yeager, an accomplished pianist (and actor-director) who will play both onstage and off.

“It really suits our space,” Strassburger says of the piece, which stars the top San Diego-based actors Linda Libby, an Ion company member, and Annie Hinton, making her Ion debut. “The more we work on it, (the more) it works very well as a chamber musical.”

The house that gives the play its name is, in some ways, a character all its own. And while the Hillcrest theater’s size doesn’t allow for the kind of full-size facade seen in the Broadway production, Strassburger says the Ion staging finds ways to suggest the mansion’s battered, melancholy majesty.